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tv   Early Start  CNN  November 15, 2012 2:00am-4:00am PST

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with a guy with an idea and something on the face that he was not using anything else, and when people said it is the most "early start" begins now. breaking news, a blistering assault under way right now in gaza. >> if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. >> fighting words from president obama sticking up for one of his own in the face of critics. >> paying the price, is bp reportedly closer to a plea deal over the gulf oil spill that could cost the oil giants a billion dollars. welcome to "early start," i'm john berman. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. nice to have you with us. it's 5:00 a.m. in the east.
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this is cnn breaking news. >> we begin this morning with breaking news. a new crisis in the middle east, israeli and palestinian militants exchanging deadly fire near the israel/gaza border. they say it's in retaliation for ongoing rocket attacks into southern israel. >> triggered by an air strike that killed the top hamas military commander. sayre -- sara sidner is following the story. >> reporter: you can see gaza behind me. there has been air strike after air strike after air strike. we ourselves witnessed three air strikes, major hit. we could see fire and then three plumes of smoke. since then we've been also seeing and hearing rockets coming over into southern israel. we now know there are three people who have died in israel
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in an apartment building very near, within a 7 kilometer radius of gaza in israel. we also know that at least seven people have been killed here in gaza and the air strikes are continuing. right now we do and we are watching the funeral happen, of ha the leader of hamas' military wing, that is going on as we speak. thousands of people attending that funeral. a very important figure, someone who people see as one of the founders of hamas, a symbolic member of hamas as well. we are expecting this to continue for quite some time. we really have no idea, we have no guidance from either side as to when the fighting between israel and gaza might stop. so far it has been a constant barrage of air strikes here in gaza and rockets coming in to southern israel. >> sara, there's a report on the israeli defense website suggesting that reserve units, infantry units are preparing for
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the possibility of a grounded asalt. wondering if you're hearing anything about that. >> reporter: absolutely. last night we confirmed that. i sat and tacked with the israeli military spokeswoman leibovich who told me directly yes, indeed, the military is preparing but they have not called for a ground war. they are bringing in reservists, preparing those reservists for the possibility of coming in on the ground but they have not made that determination yet. they certainly have been striking from the air, they have been striking also from the sea. we know that israeli ships have been striking. just now i heard another blast sounding like another air strike. you're hearing return fire as well. just behind me here in gaza. this is a situation where civilians are extremely frightened on both sides of the border here in gaza as we drove through the streets, it was quiet. most of the shops were closed in the areas and neighborhoods we went through. there's a sense of extreme tension here. when we got to the other side of
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the crossing, we were hearing more from the taxi drivers. you're hearing more of what sounds like gunfire from inside gaza. you can hear a znkt sound one the air strikes hit, you can hear a large blast followed by fire and huge plumes of smoke. there have been over 100 strikes since last night, sense the killing of the leader of hamas' military ring. >> thank you very much for the update. a defiant president obama making it clear he is ready to rumble with the republicans. the president drawing two big lines in the sand in his first news conference since winning re-election. first on taxes and the fiscal cliff. >> but what i'm not going to do is to extend bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% that we can't afford and, according to economists, will have the least positive impact on our economy. >> the president also coming to
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the defense of susan rice, the u.s. ambassador to the united nations, who just a few days after the attack as you recall said violence on the u.s. consulate in benghazi began as a spontaneous protest against an anti-islam film. two top-ranking republicans are vowing to block rice's nomination if she is picked to be the next secretary of state. the president firing back with a rare flash of anger. >> senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. >> white house correspondent dan lothian, live from washington this morning. it's really nice to see you, dan. >> good to see you. >> let's first talk about the fiscal cliff. the president said we could see a deal by next week. that may hinge on this issue with taxes. how are republicans responding to the president's remarks? >> well, you know, first of all, there does seem a willingness by republicans to find areas of agreement, to reach a compromise. but they are pushing back on the
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president's plan because they don't believe that a solution should lie in tax hikes for any americans, including the wealthiest of americans, despite the fact that there's this looming fiscal cliff and the president has said, as you heard just a short time ago, that only middle class americans should get some ease here and not those wealthy americans from those taxes. and despite that, john boehner believes that a solution is possible. take a listen. >> i've outlined a framework for how both parties can work together to avert the fiscal cliff without raising tax rates. if you've look closely at what the president had to say and look closely at what i've had to say, there are no barriers here to sitting down and beginning to work through this process. >> when it comes to those tax hikes, though, the president saying that 98% of americans would not see their taxes go up, that 97% of small businesses
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would not be impacted at all. he does see some room there to close loopholes for some tax reforms but he doesn't believe that that's enough to make up that trillion dollars, and that the math simply doesn't add up. so what the president wants is a comprehensive plan so that middle-class americans are not hurt. zoraida? >> let's move on to the heated back and forth over u.n. ambassador susan rice. republican senators john mccain and lindsey graham say they would actually try to block rice from being promoted to secretary of state should she be nominated. they are criticizing her over the statement that she read days after the deadly benghazi attack saying they were spontaneous and s stemmed from a protest over an anti-islamic film. so why is the gop going after rice? >> well, because, you know, they feel she was the face of the administration at the time and the narrative that she laid out at the time simply did not turn out to be the case.
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so they don't believe, john mccain and other republicans, don't believe that the information that's been put out there has been very accurate and they don't believe that it adds up. take a listen. >> well, first of all talking points came from the white house, not from the dni. second of all, it was obvious within 24 hours that the station chief from the cia had said that this was a terrorist attack. and she continued to tell the world through all the talk shows, that it was a, quote, spontaneous demonstration sparked by a video. that's not competence in my view. and the president is the one who is ultimately responsible. that is not an acceptable person, inmy view, to be secretary of state. >> president obama says it is important to find out exactly what happened there but it's outrageous for senator mccain or other republicans to go after
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miss rice, that it's the president who's responsible, that he should be the one if they want to point fingers or go after anyone. zoraida? >> dan lothian live in washington for us. thank you. >> okay. new developments this morning in "the apprentice" sex scandal leading back to square one. we know the identity of the fbi agent who helped start the investigation that eventually led to the former cia director's resignation. his name is frederick humphries ii, 47 years old and a veteran investigator. also two -- paula broadwell's security clearance is now suspended pending the outcome of the investigation. barbara starr is following developments for us from the pentagon. we're hearing so far there have been no official findings that broadwell broke any laws or engaged in criminal activity. why suspend her security clearance? >> well, you know, fran townsend is reporting just that, john, that all the indications are,
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from the laumt forces she's spoken to, not egregious violation. broadwell is a reservist in military intelligence with the army. and inside the military, a violation, even if it's so-called minor, of handling classified information, especially when you're a military intelligence analyst is quite serious. yes, the army has suspended her security clearance. i want to read to you the statement that the army put out. the army said, quote, the army has been cooperating with federal law enforcement authorities in this matter and those actions are ongoing. appropriate actions with regard to this officer's clearance and access have been taken. so now what we know is the military is also involved in this. analyzing what is going on, pulling broadwell's security clearance, at least for now. she is in the position of having to demonstrate that she can get
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that clearance back and continue her career as an army reservist, john. >> there are so many facets to this. tomorrow, david petraeus is going to testify or talk to leaders of the senate and house intelligence committees about the attacks in benghazi. this is a closed-door session, though, barbara. do you have any idea what's going to be discussed? >> well, we are told indeed closed door petraeus wanted to voluntarily come and talk to them about what he knew, you know, nobody is saying what it is that he's actually going to say. but we've talked to some people close to petraeus and the indications are he's going to try and explain this whole issue that dan was talking about. when they thought it was a terrorist attack, what they knew about it, who they thought might be responsible and whether or not that whole situation? cairo at the time about the demonstration over an anti-islamic film may have played a role. you had a very murky situation, john. >> barbara starr at the pentagon this morning. thanks very much.
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11 minutes past the hour. coming up, how the president will pay personal attention to the victims of sandy. that's scheduled to happen just hours from now. nt is hard, try running four. fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase.
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15 minutes past the hour. welcome back to "early start." president obama travels to new york city today for an up close look at what superstorm sandy left behind. the president will survey the damage and talk with residents of staten island, one of the hardest hit areas of the city. it's his second tour of the new jersey devastation. he visited the new jersey coast with governor chris christie just days after the storm. mayor bloomberg turned down the offer he made to assess the storm damage then. victor bloomberg is live in staten island. good morning to you. what is the president hoping to accomplish there today? >> good morning, zoraida. the mission is two-fold, to come
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and speak with the people who have lost someone or something in this storm. remember, of the 43 deaths across the city of new york, more than half of them on staten island. if they have not lost someone, they've likely lost something. much like the store behind me, completely decimated by the storm. he'll speak sw local officials about recovery and believe me, there's a lot of work to do. it seems like this sporadically across staten island. zoraida. >> i know you've spent a lot of time with the residents there, staten island. how are they reacting to the president's visit? >> not one person i've spoken with have said that the president should not come. they are also requesting mr. president, if you come, don't come with hugs and good words, come with something we can use. i spoke with a man, mike hoffman, yesterday. he's dispatching teams of volunteers. he says he wants specific things from the president. >> bittersweet.
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it's going to create a lot of traffic and impede a lot of the work we're trying to do here. he wants to address the issue. he can do it fine in a helicopter. if you're going to come here, come here with a couple truck loads of volunteers. come with guys that are willing to get their hands dirty and help the people of the area. >> mike hoffman's message was please do not forget us. he says it will take six months to a year for this community to recover. he and everyone i've spoken with all believe staten island will recover but it will take some time. zoraida. >> thank you for that. appreciate it. it is 17 minutes after the hour. a lot going on this morning. christine romans here with the headlines. >> tensions threatening to erupt into an all-out war. israel targeting what it calls hamas terror sites in gaza. at least three people have been killed by rocket fire. the new hostility escalated by an israel air strike.
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jon bon jovi's 19-year-old daughter is recovering at a hospital this morning after overdosing on heroin. authorities say stephanie was found unresponsive yesterday at her hotel room -- i'm sorry, her dorm in hamilton college in upstate new york. she and fellow students were -- and a fellow tune were charged with drug possession. stephanie is the oldest of jon bon jovi's four daughters. >> it's the beginning of the end for the twilight franchise. breaking dawn premieres tonight. critics say this is the fifth, maybe the best of all the twilight zones. it's been described as a love letter to all those twi-hards who apparently are everywhere. speaking of vampires, later on starting point, elizabeth reaser pl plays the die hard of the
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we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together. minding your business this morning, u.s. stock futures trading higher for now at least. >> christine romans is back with us talking markets be with with fiscal cliffs, ceo talks and bp.
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>> there's a lot on my plate this morning. u.s. stock futures are up. the european markets are down and we just learned that the euro area, 17 countries that use the euro, has slipped into a double dip recession. that's something that certainly we'll be talking about here in this country today. markets were lower yesterday, 185 points down on the dow. did you know since election, the market, the dow is down almost 700 points since the election. look at that chart. a variety are things happened here. four-month lows for stocks, euro weakness. the eurozone weakness, concerns about what's happening there. it's our biggest trading partner. you have the fiscal cliff talk, companies concerned about the fiscal clif and a slowing american consumer. all of these things working together here to be a problem for markets. speaking of the fiscal cliff. ceos that met with the president yesterday are saying they're optimistic about their 90-minute meeting and what they heard there. the honeywell ceo said this will get solved one way or another.
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you want to get it solve one way or another the best way possible for the american people, of course, and for consumers. walmart in a statement said they're concerned about their consumer. our customers they say are working hard to adapt to the new normal but their confidence is fraj. they're shopping for christmas now and they don't need uncertainty over tax increase. there was a great piece yesterday in "usa today" that i think shows what this cliff looks like. you're hearing a lot from insiders, beltway insiders that it's more like a slope, not a cliff. this is why it's called a cliff. these are the tax increases for the year, these are the spending cuts. you have an economy that has that much money taken out of it. here's where we are here, here's where we end up. that's a resgs. it's also 9.1% unemployment by the end of the year. warren buffett says he's not so worried about it. you'll hear his interview a little bit later. when walmart says we're worried
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about our shoppers because they're exactly the people who would be hurt by fiscal cliff, that's something i take notice to. bp said to be close in advanced talks with a settlement from the government. there's that picture. remember these pictures? we watched as the oil was shooting out of this damaged well head. they're very close to a settlement with the government. we expect it will be massive. they're trying to put at least this part of it behind them. reuters first reported the story in the middle of the night. we should get some sort of announcement today. in case you're wondering, bp shares are up 62% since the bottom after that well. isn't that amazing? >> that is amazing. >> that was a good investment even as that was a very, very terrible period for the american -- >> environment, economy, on and on and on. >> environmental region. >> thanks, christy. >> you're welcome.
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it's on. president obama launching himself head first into a war of words with some of his sharpest critics. stripped. the government yanked security clearance from the woman whose affair brought down the cia director. one-on-one with the oracle, why warren buffett thinks we might survive a plunge over that fiscal cliff. welcome back to "early start." happy you're here with us this morning. i'm zoraida sambolin. i'm john berman. 29 minutes past the hour. this is cnn breaking news.
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we do have breaking news from the middle east this morning. new violence between israel and palestinian militants along the israel/gaza border. the israeli military targeting hamas sites in gaza. >> take a look at your screen right now. the attack on the vehicle took out the top hamas military commander. hamas warns that israel has, quote, opened the gates of hell. >> other news now, if republicans are looking for a fight, president obama says bring it. the president showing flashes of anger in his first news conference since winning re-election. demanding that the wealthiest americans pay more taxes while telling two republicans who were threatening to block susan rice from becoming the next secretary of state, go after me instead. dan lothian is live in washington this morning. we saw a different president obama on the podium. he was aggressive, particularly on the issue of susan rice. >> you're right. this is not the kind of emotion
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that we have grown to see from the president. he tends to hold back a bit, not be as emotional. this was an area where the president came out very strong, saying that these attacks from republicans have simply been unfair. he called them outrageous. he said if they want to point fenger at anyone, attack anyone, they should dop it the ahim. take a listen. >> but for them to go after the u.n. ambassador who had nothing to do with benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence she had received and besmirch her reputation is outrageous. and, you know, we're after an election now. >> the president also had some very strong words when it came to those bush era tax cuts saying that he will not extend them for the wealthiest of americans.
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he wants a comprehensive plan so that middle class americans won't be impacted over the long haul and the president believing and saying that even other economists agree as well that wealthy americans can pay more and still make money, john. >> dan, as you say, the president seemed to lay out outlines, draw boundaries at least on the issue of taxes. how are republicans reacting to this? >> two-fold. i think you see a real sense that there are areas of agreement, that they can reach a compromise. but they're pushing back on the notion that there should be taxes raised on any americans, even the wealthiest of americans. they say to do that will only stifle growth and will impact any kind of job creation over the long term, john. >> thanks, dan lothian in washington for us this morning. it is 32 minutes past the hour. now to the latest on "the apprentice" sex scandal. two u.s. officials say his biographier and mistress paula broadwell no longer has top security clearance. they say it is suspended pending the outcome of this ongoing
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investigation. petraeus will testify about the libya embassy attack tomorrow before a closed hearing of the house intelligence committee. will be his first appearance on capitol hill since admitting the affair and resigning last week. at least one prominent republican is blasting mitt romney for claiming the president bonn re-election by giving gifts to blacks, hispanics and younger voters. listen to how the defeated gop nominee is explaining his loss in this phone call to some of his top donors. >> what the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote. >> louisiana's republican governor bobby jindal says romney has it all wrong and is not speak for the entire republican party. >> absolutely reject that notion, that description. i think that's absolutely wrong. that is not -- i don't think
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that represents where we are as a party and where we're going as a party. i think that has got to be one of the most fundamental type ways in this election. >> governor jindal is considered a possible presidential candidate in 2016. he says if republicans plan to rebound from their election loss, they have to stop dividing american voters. 47 days until we hit the fiscal cliff. but billionaire warren buffett doesn't see what all the fuss is about. the oracle of omaha says as long as president obama holds firm on the wealthiest americans paying more taxes, we can go right over the clip without plunging into a recession. poppy harlow sat down for an exclusive interview with the founder of berkshire hathaway. >> i was shocked when he answered me. you'll hear from him in a moment. he's the only ceo i know, i was just talking to christine romans about this, that holes this position, that maybe we're being
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too alarmist. he thinks it's a big deal, one we have to solve but he wants the president to take a very hard line. what is the likelihood of the united states falling into a recession if we go over the cliff? >> i don't think that's beginning to happen. if we go past january 1st, whether it will be january 10th or february 1st but we are not going to permanently cripple ourselves because 535 people can't get along. >> even if we go over for two months, does that dip this economy back into recession? >> i don't think so. >> you don't think so. that's interesting because the cbo believes that. >> well, we had hurricane sandy which disrupted the economy for a period. we had katrina many years ago. there are things that will disrupt the economy. i mean, 9/11, you know, was an extraordinary case. but we have a very resilient economy. we've had one for hundreds of years. and the fact that they can't get along for the month of january is something that's not going to torpedo the economy.
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>> one of the things he wants to see is significantly, quote, significantly higher taxes for wealthy americans. you heard dan lothian talking about it. what does he mean? he told me double capital gains tax, 30% capital gains on investments, not out of the question at all, income tax 50% plus, not out of the question. he wants to see a very different tax system than we have right now. >> one of the big problems i thought was interesting that he said was health care still. >> yes. >> he called it the -- of our economy. >> i'm so glad you saw that, zoraida. he said we spend 2.6 trillion in health care costs. he said he supports president obama but obama care didn't change things that much. we have a huge, looming issue. >> also parentsly he has pick for president, 2016. >> do we have to move on to the 2016 election already? parentally. we were talking about women and the importance he thinks women play in the u.s. economic recovery. he had a lot of opinions on that. and thinks we need more female lawmakers and then he had this
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to say. >> what about a female president? 2016. >> i hope so. i hope it's hillary clinton. >> you hope it's hillary clinton? >> sure. >> you supported both her and president obama in the 2008 race. what is it about hillary clinton that you like so much. >> i like what she believes in and i think she's extraordinarily able and energetic for that matter. in pushing those bullies. i don't see how you could have anybody better qualified. >> pretty ringing endorsement. >> early endorsement. >> early endorsement, absolutely, guys. >> poppy lar harlow, appreciate. called out by the -- a millionaire on run in the middle of a murder investigation. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms by keeping my airways open for 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups.
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mca -- mcafee. he's gone into hiding because he says he believed authorities in belize were trying to frame him for this murder. martin savage is in belize this morning. martin, what are the authorities there telling you? >> reporter: morning, john. a lot of people talking about the comment by the prime minister there, bonkers, and it got quite a chuckle, however, this is an extremely serious matter as everybody, especially on this island knows. the island is the island john macafee lives on or the island, greg falls, died. it is his death that seems to be overlooked in the effort to find mcafee. they have not had a single sighting of mcafee since he went into hiding which is hard to imagine since he has been public
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in all of the communication he's had outside of this country. not a single person reported seeing him. this island is relatively small, about 10,000 people and yet he's managed to stay hidden. they believe he is here. they just don't know exactly where he is. don't you track his phone conversations? they say they're not sure how he's getting out, if he's using a cell phone or land line. basically they're very frustrated. as you already heard from the prime minister, they think his mental state of mind is a real problem here and they're worried about it. they do not think he's dangerous, john. >> martin savage in belize this morning with a great reminder that there is a death here and it is a serious matter. thanks a lot, martin. >> 42 minutes past the hour. waking up to storms in the carolinas, rob marciano back with that for us. good morning to you. >> good morning, guys. not only storms but rain and chill where air, as a matter of fact, freezing rain advisories for higher parts of south
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carolina. columbia getting heavy rain, charleston up through myrtle, you're getting some rain. temperatures are certainly chilly. we're looking at 30s and 40s across the south. 38 in memphis, 42 in atlanta. that's a see your breath kind of morning. 28 in nashville. been a chilly november. 26 degrees up in albany and 35 in boston. we'll rebound a little bit over the next couple days. generally speaking at or slightly below average with temps getting back into the 50s for friday and saturday. back in the 40s on sunday. daytime highs, 50 in chicago, san francisco 66, 44 in denver, 62 in san cass city. the weather map fairly quiet outside of this disturbance that's rolling across parts of the carolinas. it will be mild and quiet across parts of the central plainsant pacific northwest. getting into a sloppy pattern there if you're traveling to portland or seattle. this is the time of year, the next couple of weeks are typically the wettest of the season and in a pretty wet spot.
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bring along the umbrella and rain gear if you're heading up towards portland or seattle, san francisco looks to be nice but rather cool. that's the latest from here, guys, you are looking dry in the big apple but a fall crisp in the air for sure. >> indeed. we will agree with that. thank you so much, rob. >> 44 monz after the hour right now. ace is high. i love this story. the two men who grabbed one of baseball's biggest awards and why they couldn't be more different from each other. if you're leaving the house watch us anytime on your desktop or mobile phone, just go to cnn.com/tv. [ male announcer ] there's a better way... v8 v-fusion. vegetable nutrition they need, fruit taste they love. could've had a v8. or...try kids boxes! but what about your wrinkles? neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair visibly reduces fine lines and wrinkles in just one week. why wait if you don't have to. neutrogena®.
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47 minutes past the hour. let's get you up to date. here's christine romans. in gaza, palestinians are retaliating for israel's assassination of the top hamas military commander. three people have been killed in militant rocket attacks into southern israel. meantime, israeli warplanes are pounding gaza, targeting launch and infrastructure sites. a murder indictment. pedro hernandez is accused of kidnapping and murdering etan patz. he was the first missing child to appear on a milk carton. the indictment alleges he was lured into a basement and killed there. president obama says he's open to new ideas but any budget deal has to include higher taxes on the wealthiest americans. in his first press conference since winning re-election, the
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president issued a challenge to top republican senators, john mccain and lindsey graham, threatening to block susan rice from becoming the next secretary of state. over her handling of the benghazi terror attack. the president says instead of targeting the u.s. ambassador to the u.n., mccain and graham should, quote, go after me. maine's new senator-elect, confirms he will caucus with democrats but he ran as an independent. he said he'd like to be a bridge between the two parties. his decision to caucus with the democrats gives the party a 55-45 advantage in the senate. the new york mets ari dickey is the first knuckleballer to win the cy young award. in the american league, a fireballer, not a knuckleballer, david price of the tampa bay rays won the award. price tied for the average l. lead with 20 wins. he just barely edged out justin verlander. >> the ari dickey thing is
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great. a knuckleballer is hard to hit. they do it in the old age. no one has ever won the cy young throwing mostly knuckleballs. he's like 38. >> it's a good story. >> such a nice, wonderful story. >> awesome. >> good for him. all right. it is 50 minutes after the hour right now. we have a packed hour ahead on "early start," including peter king weighing in on whistle-blower in "the apprentice" xapdle. he's angry over the fbi's handling of the case and what he thinks needs to be done to avoid hitting the fiscal cliff. caught on tape, a woman dressed as a nurse tries to steal an infant. look at this. by stashing the baby in her purse. now she's explaining why she did it from behind bars. >> and remember this story from yesterday, the cleveland judge who ordered a driver to hold an idiot sign for driving on the sidewalk around a day care bus speaks out on her unusual
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punishment. we'll hear what she had to say. >> didn't i say let's invite her on to her show. parentally nobody did. >> we'll hear her. almost as good. thursday the new friday? thousands of haters going to hate on the 'tween who's being called the next rebecca black. her new thanksgiving song, oh, no, it's coming up next. >> yes. oh, no. [ male announcer ] when a major hospital wanted to provide better employee benefits while balancing the company's bottom line, their very first word was... [ to the tune of "lullaby and good night" ] ♪ af-lac ♪ aflac [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. [ yawning sound ]
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welcome back. 54 minutes paragraph the hour. a rush too much. listen to this. according to "the new york times," records from the food and drug administration show that those 5-hour energy shots you see on the counters almost
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everywhere have been linked to 13 deaths and 30 life-threatening incidents. this is since 2008. the life-threatening incidents include heart attacks, convulsions and at least one spontaneous abortion. this is according to "the times." this comes a month after the fda says monster energy drinks were linked to five deaths. >> that's all bad. >> i would say so, berman. good conclusion there. by george, this is in "the washington post." u.s. news and world report has removed george washington university from its best college listings after it admitted it overstated the credentials of incoming freshmen. what kind of message is that sending? don't cheat kids but we cheat. it is being called one of the all-time great soccer goals. >> it is an awesome goal. it comes from sweden. you can see it there. there's a bicycle kick from like
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30 yards out. it shocked the crowd, stuns the announcers. >> why do guys take off their shirts. >> i'll show you. >> i said why. >> it's a big soccer thing. he certainly deserved to take off his shirt after that goal. he scores four goals in this game, all four of sweden's goals in this game. it's like hitting ten home runs in one baseball game. look at that goal, just amazing. fantastic. >> it is. i didn't mean to belittle the fact that he did that. >> and he took his shirt off. >> i know they do it in soccer. my question is why. >> they're hot. >> all right. there will be a lot of haters from the people who brought you rebecca black. meet 12-year-old nicole westbrook. ♪ ♪ it's thanksgiving ♪ we we we we're going to have a good time ♪ ♪ oh oh oh it's thanksgiving
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♪ we we we are going to have a good time ♪ >> do you like this one, berman? >> i like the frozen vegetables. who puts frozen vegetables in a music video. >> how do you like it. >> i like it more in soccer when they score goals. >> her new mega viral hit about thanksgiving. it's the same producers that had a similar hit with "friday." the official video has more than 7 million hits in seven days. along with 15,000 likes versus 110 dislikes i might add. >> there's no explanation sometimes for the internet. check out other top cnn trends like this exciting one. head to cnn.com/trends. 57 minutes past the hour. "the apprentice" sex scandal getting big laughs on late night tv. jay leno compared the drama to high school and asked a teenager to break it down. the bit gots lots of lols. check it out. >> okay. so this general diva who is so
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famous that this lady paula was like writing his bio, and she was like are you dtf. he's like i'm way dtf. they started hooking up. then paula freaked out because this florida party lady, jill, was also e-mailing general david. so paula e-mailed jill and was like -- he was like, whatever. i'm telling my fbi bff. jill's fbi bff was totes crushing on him like he's taylor lautner. >> i'm trying to figure this out. two four-star generals involved here, several women involved. one set of twins and a guy, a shirtless guy from the fbi. and i'm -- i mean, don't you miss the simplicity of the clinton years?
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>> that's pretty funny. "early start" continues right now. >> oh, boy. breaking news, a blistering assault under way right now in gaza. >> if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. >> fighting words from president obama sticking up for one of his own in the face of critics. and paying the price, bp reportedly closer to a plea deal over the gulf oil spill that could cost the oil giant a billion dollars. good morning to you. welcome to "early start." i'm zoraida sambolin. >> and i'm john berman. it's about 6:00 a.m. in the east. we'll go live to gaza for that breaking news. in a few moments. but first, if republicans want to pick a fight, president obama looks like he is in fact ready to rumble. the president showing flashes of anger and defiant, sort of drawing two liens in the sand, more like boundaries in his
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first news conference since winning re-election. first, on taxes and the fiscal cliff. >> but what i'm not going to do is to extend bush to extend bus the wealthiest 2% that we can't afford and according to economists, will have the least positive impact on our economy. >> the president is also making clear he has the back of america's ambassador to the united nations, susan rice, after the september attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. she announced the attack there was triggered by a video in the u.s. now they're bound to block her nomination if she's picked to be the next secretary of state. it hasn't happened yet, but this clearly angered the president. >> the senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. >> dan lothian is live from washington this morning. i want to start talking about
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the fiscal cliff. because he did set some boundaries. he, of course, optimistically said we could see a deal by next week if they did it his way, but that really hinges on the issue of taxes. how are republicans responding? >> two ways. first of all, there seems to be this willingness among republicans to find areas of agreement, to find some compromise. but they are pushing back on the president's proposals, because they don't think that a solution should mean raising taxes on any americans, including wealthy americans. so there doesn't seem to be a lot of wiggle room here, but speaker john boehner sounded a bit optimistic. >> i've outlined a framework for how both parties can work together to avert the fiscal cliff, without raising tax rates. >> a few have looked closely what the president have had to say, have looked closely at what i have had to say. there are no barriers here to sitting down and beginning to work through this process. >> the president says under his plan, 98% of americans won't see
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their taxes. 97% of those small businesses won't be impacted at all. and while the president believes that there's room to close some of these loopholes, to have some tax reform, he doesn't believe that there's enough there to make up $1 trillion. and that there needs to be a comprehensive approach, so that middle class americans won't be impacted. john? >> dan, the president also talked about the petraeus investigation. what's he saying about that right now? >> and this was the first time that the president has weighed in on this publicly. he had very kind words for general petraeus and his service, not only in afghanistan, iraq, but also at the cia. >> from my perspective, at least, he has provided this country an extraordinary service. we are safer because of the work that dave petraeus has done. and my main hope right now is that he and his family are able to move on and that this ends up being a single side note on what
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has otherwise been an extraordinary career. >> the president said that at this point, there's no evidence that any classified information was compromised, but when pressed on other details, such as timeline, the president says that this is all part of the fbi investigation. >> all right. dan lothian in washington, thanks so much. it is three minutes past the hour. a major development in the petraeus sex scandal, and it leads back to square one. we now know the identity of the fbi agent who helped start the investigation that eventually led to the former cia director's resignation. he is frederic humphreys ii, he's 47 years old, and a veteran investigator. also, two investigators say paula broadwell's security clearance is now suspended pending the outcome of this ongoing investigation. barbara starr is following developments from the pentagon. good morning to you, barbara. so so far officials say they have not found any evidence that
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broadwell broke any laws or engaged in any criminal activity, so why have they suspended her security clearance? >> from all accounts, this is from the fbi, from law enforcement sources, and you heard the president say that national security hasn't been compromised, but inside the military, it is a different situation. broadwell is an army reserve i.t., a lieutenant colonel, specializing in military intelligence. and in that world, you can't have any glitches on the handling or possession of classified information. so if they found classified information in her house or information she wasn't handling appropriately, she's got a big problem on her hand. and by all accounts, that's why her clearance was suspended. the army issued this statement saying, "the army has been cooperating with federal law enforcement authorities in this matter and those actions are ongoing. appropriate actions with regard to this officer's clearance and access have been taken."
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so there you have it right there. her clearance has been suspended pending the investigation. her problem now is she's going to have to demonstrate that she did not violate any of the military rules in the handling of classified information and try and get her clearance back and keep her career. zoraida? >> let's talk about general petraeus. tomorrow he'll address leaders of the senate and house intelligence committees about the deadly benghazi attack. we do know it's a closed-door session. do you have any idea what will be discussed? >> well, we don't. this will be behind closed doors. petraeus going up there voluntarily. the committee wanting to hear from him. by all accounts, what he will have to do is walk through the timeline, what did he know about benghazi, when did he know it, what conclusions and intelligence was there right off the bat that this was either a terrorist attack or as susan rice had publicly indicated, the ambassador to the u.n., that it
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had something to do with a demonstration about an anti-islamic film. this is the big controversy, so what senators, what congress wants to know is how much information petraeus had right from the beginning that it was a terrorist attack. >> that's what everybody wants to know. barbara starr, lav from the pentagon, appreciate that. coming up at 6:00 a.m. eastern, peter king will join us. he called the petraeus scandal and the fbi's failure to kick it up a the ladder a crisis of major proportions. a top republican thinks mitt romney is way off base for claiming the president won re-election by giving gifts to young and minority voters. listen to how the beaten republican nominee is explaining his election loss in a phone call to top donors. >> what the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote. >> now, louisiana's republican
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governor, bobby jindal says that romney has it all wrong and is not speaking for the entire republican party. >> i absolutely reject that notion, that discrimination. i think that's absolutely wrong. that is not -- i don't think that represents where we are as a party and where we're going as a party. and i think that has got to be one of the most fundamental takeaways from this election. >> the republicans plan to rebound from their election loss, they have to, quote, stop dividing the american voters. we're going to go back to our breaking news. a new threat of war in the middle east. israel launching attacks on hamas sites in gaza. militants have responded, sending rockets into southern israel, killing at least three people. >> the new round och hostilities escalated following the assassination of hamas' top military commander. cnn's sara sidner is live along
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the israel/gaza border this morning. good morning, sara, what are you seeing? >> reporter: good morning. we have actually made it into gaza and you're looking at a shot of gaza from the top of a building. what i want to tell you is that we have been seeing and hearing the loud sounds of air strikes, over and over again. we've seen huge plumes of smoke here in gaza city. we have also seen the other side of the border, about a couple of hours ago. we saw rockets coming in, at least, we counted ourselves, 15 rockets coming in over the last hour or so. so we're hearing this back and forth and seeing it for ourselves. the people here in gaza have -- 13 people have been killed since the targeted killing of the hamas military wing commander, ahmed al jabari. we're seeing now 29 people who have been injured, and 13 people dead, including nine militants, two children, and a pregnant
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woman. on the other side of the border, there are also been deaths. three israelis died after a rocket hit an apartment building, which was in that sort of danger zone, seven kilometers of the border. rockets just coming over, one over the other. we know at one point when we were crossing, where you have to walk through quite a long ways to get from one border to the other and into gaza, there were lots of rockets coming over towards that crossing as well. so a very dangerous situation right now, anywhere near this border, and a lot of fear on the part of civilians on both sides. if you look in the streets of gaza, this is a highly, highly populated place, very densely populated. there is almost no one in the streets. very few cars in the streets. the shops mostly are closed. and you're looking right now in an area where it's usually bustling with people. so there's definitely fear on the parts of civilians. and as you can imagine why, there's been 140 air strikes in the last eight or so hours. a very dangerous situation on both sides of the border.
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>> three israelis now dead in rocket strikes, the escalations of bombings by israel. now we understand the israeli defense forces calling up reserves to prepare for at least the possibility of an infantry attack. sar sarah, this does seem like an escalation. is there any end in sight? >> reporter: this is a major escalation. this is the most fighting and most violence we've seen between israel and gaza twins fwaisince. as far as an end in sight, nobody knows. it's a matter of whether or not somebody can broker some sort of a cease-fire or a truce. they tried doing that a day ago using egypt as the intermediary, that fell through. now egypt has taken its ambassador out of israel, so who will do the mediation and who will try to get in between these two warring factions and try to get them to come together to stop this is going to be a real difficult, a real problem, i think, for the time being. but israel is saying, look, if you keep send rockets into our
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country, we are going to respond and we are going to respond with force. >> sara sidner inside gaza. >> wondering about that response inside the neighboring country. coming up, how the president will pay personal attentions to the victims of sandy, just hours from now. [ boys screaming ] hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira. man: okay, no problem. it's easy to get started; i can help you with the paperwork. um...this green line just appeared on my floor. yeah, that's fidelity helping you reach your financial goals. could you hold on a second? it's your money. roll over your old 401(k) into a fidelity ira and take control of your personal economy. this is going to be helpful. call or come in today. fidelity investments. turn here. starts with ground beef, unions, and peppers baked in a ketchup glaze with savory gravy and mashed russet potatoes.
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well, having a ton of locations doesn't hurt. and my daughter loves the santa. oh, ah sir. that is a customer. let's not tell mom. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. fedex office. in just a few hours, president obama will get a firsthand look at the recovery from superstorm sandy here in the city. the president will visit storm-ravaged staten island, viewing the devastation from the air before meeting with storm victims and local officials on the ground. many people there saying they feel simply abandoned by fema. cnn's victory blackwell is live on staten island this morning. victor, you spoke with some residents there. how are they reacting to this visit today? >> reporter: well, it's mixed,
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john. there's not one person i spoke with who said they did not want the president to come. but they are saying, mr. president, if you come, bring some tools, bring some people ready to work, bring some heavy equipment so we can start to rebuild staten island. this is a lot of what you're seeing behind me. this was a tech store that was just devastated by the storm. and not just the items, not just the homes, but more than half of the people who died from sandy in new york died on staten island. i met a man who moved here in 1959. his name is dominick trayna, he was 13 years old, moved in with his parents there, then when he got married, he bought a house up the street. he told us how he felt when he came back and saw that both his childhood home and the home where he raised his children were both destroyed. when you came back and saw this,
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what did you feel? what did you think? >> cried. you know, i don't know what i thought. i'm still in shock. you know, right now, we're living in the basement. we've got nothing. we have nothing. >> reporter: how do you start over? >> at 66 years old, i don't know pip really don't. we're just going to stick together with the kids and try to make the best of it. >> reporter: 53 years on cedar grove avenue in newdorf, and i asked him, are you going to rebuild, are you going to stay? and he said, i don't think i want to live here anymore. he's 66 years old. this is all he's known in his adult life. but he's hoping to speak with the president when he walks down that block today and ask for support for his neighbors, although they will not be his neighbors for much longer. john? >> thanks. victor blackwell on staten island. a tough situation there, still. thanks, victor. it is 16 minutes past the hour. jon bon jovi's 19-year-old daughter is recovering this morning after a heroin overdose. authorities say stephanie bon
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jovi overdosed in her dorm in upstate new york. she and a fellow student were charged with drug possession. it's the beginning of the end for the "twilight" film franchise. critics say the fifth and final chapter may be the best of all the "twilight" films. it's been described as a love letter to all those twi-hards who i'm told by reliable sources are, in fact, everywhere. >> we have some on our staff, actually. >> vampires? >> no, not vampires. twi-hards. >> speaking of vampires, later on "starting point," elizabeth reaser joins us. one of the most frustrated things about flying is getting through airport security. >> in today's "road warriors," christine roman tells us how some technology may help travelers zip through that line. >> and we have all been on the plane a lot lately, haven't we?
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but security hours can add hours to your trip and add an awful lot of frustration. there are a few programs out there that cut your wait time. the pre-check program allows travelers to jump to the front of the line, move through security without removing their shoes, belts, or laptops. john berman is apparently in this program. these are the people i kind of like scowl at because they're moving so much more quickly. passengers become a member by becoming part of a frequent flyer and then invited by the airline. or join global entry to be eligible. you're not guaranteed to enjoy the benefits every trip. members are randomly picked to go through the designated pre-check line. others are better able to skip the line. pre-check not available at all u.s. airports, but tsa plans to roll out more by the end of the year. keep a lookout in your city. and the clear card is back. after shutting down in 2009, clear has returned and is now in four airports, orlando, denver, san francisco, and dallas-ft. worth with more to come. clear allows travelers to bypass
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regular security lines. the process is simple, you swipe your clear card in a kiosk, verify your identity with a fingerprint or iscan and move through security. a few things to note, clear costs 200 bucks a year. while members do not have to pay to be part of precheck, there's a cost of about $100 to apply to a u.s. trusted program to be eligible. >> six months ago, they said, you're precheck, get in the precheck. for a long time, i traveled a lot, a wicked lot, so if your a frequent traveler, they put you in that program. >> i thought with precheck, you have to actually sign up for it. >> nope. >> and go through a background check? >> they may have done a background check on me, i'm clean. but it wasn't at my request. the airline, my frequent flyer programs may have put me up for it. >> that's so interesting. >> but you don't always know if you can do it, so you still have to plan for the time in the line. >> i'm surprised every time when they put me in this magical line that passes like instantly.
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sorry, everyone. it's kind of awesome, though. 19 minutes after the hour. and there is a troubling trend on wall street. it began really as soon as the election ended. we'll have more, coming up. 7 this family used capital one venture miles to come home for the holidays. that's double miles you can actually use... sadly, their brother's white christmas just got "blacked out." [ brother ] but it's the family party! really jingles your bells, doesn't it? my gift to you! the capital one venture card! for any flight, any time! that's double miles you can actually use! how illuminating. what's in your wallet? let me guess, am i on the naughty list again? ho ho ho!
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. good morning to you. welcome back. we are minding your business. u.s. stock futures are trading higher this morning. >> for now. christine romans is back with us, talking market markets, fis cliffs, ceo markets and bp.
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>> we have u.s. futures up, but we have concerns about the euro zone. european stocks are down right now. and we heard, we learned now that the euro area has fallen back into recession. back into recession. that makes it a double dip. this is a big trading partner of ours. we're really watching what happens in europe, and so this is a concern, back in recession for the euro area. its second recession in just four years. it's one of the reasons why the dow has had some real trouble getting off the mat. in fact, since the election, the dow jones industrial average is down almost 700 points. it has just been one day of bad news after the other. yesterday the dow was down 185 points. you've got the euro zone weakness. you've also got this fiscal cliff concern. and that's something that's a big reason why a bunch of ceos spent 90 minutes at the white house with the president the other day, talking about how they're going to avert the so-called fiscal cliff. david cody said, this is going to get solved one way or another. well, yeah.
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but you want to make sure it gets solved in the best interest of the middle class, of course, and that's something that walmart is concerned about. its chief executive issuing a statement yesterday, saying our customers are working hard to adapt to the new normal, but their confidence is still very fragile. they're shopping for christmas now, and they don't need uncertainty over a tax increase. now, some of the elites and insiders in the beltway are saying, it's more like a slope. it's not like a fiscal cliff. look, $7 trillion over ten years of spending cuts, tax increases begin to take effect on january 1st and 2nd. you don't take all of that out of the economy on the very first day, but it begins and it really hits the psychology. the reason why it's called a fiscal cliff is because people are very concerned about how quickly and how arbitrarily money is going to be taken out of the economy. your taxes would rise, and that's something that would certainly hurt -- your taxes would rise right away on day one. there would be spending cuts right away on day one, and that's what these ceos are so discouraged about. they did say they were
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optimistic after meeting the president. they hoped to avert it, that 90-minute meeting there. and also a story, you guys, we covered extensively. bp. remember the oil spill in 2010? looks like bp is nearing a settlement with the department of justice. remember these pictures? trying to measure how much oil was being spewed into the gulf of mexico. bp close to a deal on the oil spill. the company confirming it. first reported by reuters. bp shares, i worked it out before we came in, up 62% since the worst, when tony hayward resigned and all that. amazing to me. i mean, many people thought that bp was really in trouble forever. we'll see what happens today with this. i'm really interested to see what this settlement looks like in the end. >> what's the one thing we need to know about our money? >> mortgage rates remain near historic lows. late payments fell to a three-year low in the third quarter. fewer homeowners are underwater. these rates are very slow. it's helping in this slow and
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steady healing in the housing market. >> you know, poppy harlow asked warren buffett about that as well, and he said, this is exactly what you want to see. slow and steady. >> it means it's real. >> thank you very much. 26 minutes past the hour. coming up, the cleveland judge who ordered a driver to hold an "idiot" sign for driving on the sidewalk around a day care speaks out on her unusual punishment. we're going to hear what she had to say. i'm a conservative investor. i invest in what i know. i turned 65 last week. i'm getting married. planning a life. there are risks, sure. but, there's no reward without it. i want to be prepared for the long haul. i see a world bursting with opportunities. india, china, brazil, ishares, small-caps, large-caps, ishares. industrials. low cost. every dollar counts. ishares. income. dividends. bonds. i like bonds.
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brink of war. rocket the attacks and air strikes as the violence escalates in gaza. >> set to testify. the now-former cia director david petraeus will tell his side of the benghazi story by the end of the week. >> and caught on camera. a woman dressed as a nurse tries to still an infant by stashing the baby in her purse. no! all right. welcome back to "early start" everyone. i'm john berman. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. 31 minutes past the hour. let's head back to this morning's breaking news. a new threat of war in the middle east. israel launching attacks on hamas sites in gaza. militants have responded, sending rockets into southern israel, killing at least three people. the new round of hostilities escalated following israel's assassination of the top hamas military commander. you're taking a look at pictures of that right there. leading to the warning that israel has, quote, opened the gates of hell. cnn's sara sidner is live along
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the israel/gaza border. what can you tell us, sara? >> reporter: zoraida, we've just heard and witnessed several huge blast air strikes here in gaza city. not just behind us, but sort of all over the place in the city, seeing large plume of smoke coming up from this densely populated area. we do know that so far, there are at least 120 people who have been injured. 13 people have been killed. two of them children and a pregnant woman. but also, nine hamas militants. now, we're expecting to hear from hamas, as you might imagine. the leaders of hamas have gone underground, very hard to find, worried that they are going to be the next target by these israeli air strikes that have been quite targeted and they've been very clear in saying the israeli military, that they did target the military leader of hamas, ahmed al jabari, that they pinpointed his car and then they struck it and killed him
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and the other person inside of that car. since then, we have seen hundreds of rockets coming over into israel. we, alone on the border this morning saw at least 15 rockets coming in about three kilometers from the israel/gaza border, coming into an area. and we heard not long after that that one of those rockets had hit an apartment building and killed three israelis and injured another inside of that apartment building. so death on both sides this morning, and it seems as though things are just getting hotter and hotter here. >> we're definitely worried about the escalation. on the israel defense force's websites, it says they would not rule out a ground attack. has there been any response from the neighboring countries? >> reporter: the only response that we've been hearing directed at israel, from one of their neighbors, is from egypt. egypt decided to remove its ambassador to israel last night. we were talking to the foreign ministry, a spokesman there, who
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was telling us that they were not told immediately that they had to call egypt and ask if the ambassador had indeed left. and that turned out to be true. so you're seeing quite a bit of a response there from egypt. egypt making statements about what israel is doing in gaza, but israel responding, saying that they have been the target of 120 rockets since saturday. that has grown exponentially over the past day or so. they've seen now hundreds of rockets coming into israel, and they say as long as they are being attacked, they are going to return and retaliation for those attacks. >> sara sidner, live along the israel/gaza border, thank. david petraeus will testify after all about the attack in benghazi. when he resigned last week, he withdrew from a congressional hearing. now the ex-cia director has agreed to meet behind closed doors with the senate committee
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some time soon and the house committee tomorrow. new york republican congressman peter king is on that house committee and joins me now by phone. and mr. chairman, what are you going to ask him when he appears before you on friday? what could he tell you, you don't know already? >> i would think the main thing i would ask him is, first of all, you know, listen to what he says, as to what he now believes happened in benghazi, and ask him to square that with what he told us on friday, september 13th, three days after attack, when he basically dismissed any possibility that it was a terrorist attack. clearly said that it was caused by the video that was spontaneous and it was somehow connected to what happened in egypt. and he was basically dismissing any thought of it having any al qaeda connection. i would ask him how he reached that conclusion on september 14th, and what changed since then, and how much has he learned since then, that was different from what he knew? to me, it's a real issue as the to why he was so wrong back on
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september 14th. >> mr. chairman, that of course is a lot of the same explanation that susan rice, the u.s. ambassador to the united nations gave. and it's an explanation that gave senators john mccain and lindsey graham highly critical over. so critical, they say they would block any nomination of her to become secretary of state. i'm sure you have heard this clip by now already, but that upset president obama very much in his news conference yesterday. let's listen. >> as i've said before, she made an appearance at the request of the white house, in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her. if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. >> so, mr. chairman, you know, the president, obviously, very critical there. you have called for susan rice's resignation. however, she had the same information that david petraeus
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had, apparently given by the dni, apparently given to people who were doing interviews. how does that square? >> actually, i think we'll find out, that was not the information that the cia had. it's not the information that david petraeus had. and that's why his testimony on september 14th was so unusual. the fact is, without going into all the details, documents we've seen show that within 24 hours of the attack, people in the intelligence community believe that this was a terrorist attack, that it was a planned attack. and so when they knew that, the day after, which would have been september 12th, why on september 14th saying it was not a terrorist attack. why did susan rice carry that out? the same thing on december 16th. and the president can't have it both ways. he also said yesterday, why attack susan rice, she had nothing to do with benghazi. if she has nothing to do with benghazi, why did they put her on five national television shows? >> i guess i don't understand, you think now that david petraeus when he was cia
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director that he was lying to you on the 14th? >> i'm going to ask him tomorrow, because it was clear in intelligence reporting the days after september 11th that this was a planned terrorist attack. and without going into all the details, there was certain information there, that it was a planned terrorist attack. and yet they said that it wasn't. and why they said that, i don't know. >> so you have called for susan rice's resignation, forgetting what happens to her future job. you've called for her flat-out resignation. yet when david petraeus resigned, you said that's a real loss for the country and a real loss for the cia. is that a double standard there? you want susan rice to quit, but when david petraeus does for something else, when he gave you the same information, you don't seem to have a problem with it? >> no, his talent and ability he brought to the country is record as commander in afghanistan and what he's done in the cia, absent that one appearance on september 14th. i've often said, that appearance is so different from everything he's done in his career, that's
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why he has to be questioned. but his overall career was a tremendous service to this country. >> will you tell me that information that you have that leads you to believe that you're so certain that he was misrepresenting the facts? >> no, it's been report since then that that night, there were people on the ground saying that this was a terrorist attack. there was no evidence at all that this was a demonstration. you know, we've heard people from the state department testify before darrell issa's committee, that there was no compelling evidence at all that this was spontaneous. the evidence was that it was a planned terrorist attack. in fact, in the weeks leading up to that, there were a number of threats made by al qaeda elements against the u.s. in benghazi. so all of the evidence, all of the preponderance of evidence clearly was that this was a terrorist attack. now, there could have been caveats, they could have been saying, we can't make a final decision. i would have accepted that. and they could have said that we -- >> all right. congressman peter king, homeland
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security chairman, also sits on the intelligence committee, we look forward to speaking to you after perhaps friday when you get this briefing. 39 minutes past the hour. called out by the prime minister. coming up, tough words for an american multimillionaire on the run in the midst of a murder investigation. grand prix circui. the perfect place to bring the all-new cadillac ats to test the 2.0-liter turbo engine. [ engine revs ] ♪ [ derek ] 272 horsepower. the lightest in its class. the cadillac ats outmatches the bmw 3 series. i cannot believe i have ended the day not scraping some red paint off on these barriers. ♪ [ male announcer ] the all-new cadillac ats. but they haven't experienced extra strength bayer advanced aspirin. in fact, in a recent survey, 95% of people who tried it agreed that it relieved their headache fast. visit fastreliefchallenge.com today for a special trial offer.
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a lot of news this morning, including breaking news in the northeast. soledad o'brien joins us with a look ahead. >> president obama takes on congress. he's defending his u.n. ambassador against those republican attacks, says he's willing to compromise on tax rates. big question today, will a deal be reached, or is there a line
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in the sand? we'll talk with chris van hollen, dutch rurpsberger, and joe heck is with us well. one man says he's not too worried, and that would be warren buffett. he says it won't be too bad as long as the president sticks to one principle. what the oracle of omaha says that one principle is. and a pop princess making waves on the big screen. jordyn sparks will join us live. which i think is awesome, because it's called ambition. and one of the most anticipated movies of the fall, the final installment of the "twilight" series is out at midnight. we're going to talk to one of the vampire stars, elizabeth reaser, who plays the matriarch, esme cullen. >> thanks, soledad. the prime minister of belize has some tough words for john
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mcafee, urging him to come forward and talk to the police and explain what, if anything, he knows about his neighbor's murder. mcafee has gone into hiding now, because he says that authorities in belize are trying to frame him for that crime. martin savage is live in belize, and martin, what have authorities in belize told you? >> reporter: well, essentially, what they've said is they cannot find john mcafee, and that is extremely frustrating, given the passage of time, all of the publicity, and the fact that not one person has come forward to say that they have found this man. so it is extremely upsetting to them. in fact, what really upsets them is the fact that mcafee continues to not only hide, but taunt them with phone calls to members of the cybermedia, claiming that his life is in danger because of police. finally yesterday, the prime minister, dean barrow, had enough. he fired back. listen to what he said to local channel 5. >> never met the man, don't know
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what he looks like. i don't want to be unkind, but it strikes me that he's extremely paranoid. in fact, i would go so far as to say bonkers. >> reporter: remember, this is a story that involves two americans, not just the famous one, that being mcafee, but also greg fall, who is the other american, who is his next-door neighbor, who was murdered with a gunshot to the back of his head. that's why authorities want to talk to mcafee. he is the neighbor, he's the man next door. but the two men also had some bad blood between them. right now opportunities say it is the only opportunity to talk to mcafee they want, but when he's on the run, they wonder if there's a lot more to this, as do we all. >> such a disturbing story. martin savage in belize, thank you. coming up, the two men who just grabbed one of baseball's biggest awards and why they couldn't be more different from each other. with the spark cash card from capital one,
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50 minutes after the hour right now. want to get you up to date on all the headlines. a new threat on both sides of the israel/gaza border as violence is escalating. israel targeting hamas sites inside gaza, killing at least 13 people. militants firing rockets into southern israel, at least three people have died there. a georgia woman who posed as
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a nurse and tried to steal a newborn baby is apologizing. she's behind bars. surveillance cameras caught her putting the infant into her purse, and there she is, trying to escape. two maintenance workers were able to stop her and now ballard says she regrets what she did. she says depression from two miscarriages led her to commit that crime. however, a judge sentenced her to 20 years in prison. this is zoraida's favorite story. a cleveland judge ordered a woman to hold a sign on a street corner, saying she was an idiot for driving around the school bus on the sidewalk, in front of the day care center. this judge is now talking about the decision. and judge pinky karr says the way the woman handled this whole thing was unacceptable. >> i can understand that she might be a little upset, a little anger. she was very defiant. i was surprised to see that the only time she actually held the sign, and i understand that during the hour, it was times at which she did hold it, briefly, but the only time that i
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actually saw her physically come in contact with the sign was to utility it to block the wind so she could light her cigarette. for me, it was just kind of a smack in the face. >> i wouldn't mess with this judge. >> the full sign read, "only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus." >> i thought it was a great idea and a wonderful way to handle this, because it was an idiotic move. you, however, thought it was too harsh? >> no, no, no, i applaud the move. your zeal over harsh punishment in general frightens me. that's what scares me. >> by the way, folks, he had the "idiot" sign created for me to hold over my head. i wanted to find it, because i wanted to put it over yours. i love that judge. keep 'em coming. 52 minutes past the league. dickey wins the cy young award.
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he was the mets' first 20-game winner. in the american league, david price of tampa bay rays won that award. he tied for the al lead with 20 wins. he barely edged out justin verlander in the voting. it was really close. >> justin verlander, of course, manhandled the new york yankees, which is a team that is widely loved by one rob marciano, who joins us live now from atlanta, who's covering storms. had to get a cheap shot in. >> i appreciate that. baseball has been very, very good to me. >> has it? >> well, not really this year. not great baseball weather across the carolinas. good morning again, guys. charleston up through charlotte, getting some rainfall. some of this is pretty heavy. you can use the rain, for sure. but some thunder and lightning and heavy downpours, a so-go if you're traveling that way. temps are chilly, at the freezing or below in nashville,
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23 there. 43 in atlanta. and 37, a cold rain in charlotte. 30 in scranton, below freezing in some spots across the northeast and areas, there is a little bit of fog. just be aware of that. other than that, fairly quiet. 62 in kansas city and 66 out in san francisco. as much as the rest of the country, fairly quiet. let's go to the pacific northwest to get a little bit of action. the west coast, including northern california and central california will get a little bit of rainfall as we go through the rest of this week, as we're gettiget getting into the stormy period. and if you're going to be watching the leonid meteor showers friday night into saturday morning, these are the areas where we expect to see the visibility to be good. nothing like the old meteor shower on a cool, crisp, fall evening. that's tomorrow night. guys? >> fantastic. thanks so much, rob. >> all right. today's best advice, coming up. stay with us. so what do you think? basic.
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like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. just a couple minutes left, as always, we wrap it up with best advice. >> here's christine. >> thanks, guys. today we hear from world champion and u.s. olympian, lolo jones. >> i would say the best advice i give to others who are just trying to pursue any olympic dreams or just any goal they have in life is to be motivated by your failures, because sometimes it takes one, two, maybe three tries, but if you keep going and use your failures as your motivation, you can knock it out. >> use your failures as your motivations. if you don't want, you want to win next time. like when i talk to young people, i say, you're going to make so many mistakes, that's good, learn from those mistakes, don't make the same mistake twice, learn the next time. >> and they look at you a little
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cross-eyed. don't get it. >> learn from your failures. >> i've got a lot to learn then. that's a large source of motivation for me. that is all for "early start." i'm john berman. >> and i'm zoraida sambolin. "starting point" with soledad o'brien starts right now. morning. welcome, everybody. our starting point this morning, violence in gaza. rocket attacks between israel and the palestinian militants of the security counsel holds an emergency session about this crisis. we're following the developing story. live reports up next. and tough talk from the commander in chief. president obama makes it clear, he is willing to work across the aisle on tax rates, but says republican leaders need to not mess with his ambassadors. the dow falls nearly 200 points, closing at a five-month low, and this morning news that the euro zone that has slipped back into recession. and oh, that fiscal cliff is still there. so mitt romney has some

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